Nursing Home Faces Lawsuit for Strip Show

The son of a Long Island nursing home resident found this photo in his mother's belongings and is suing the facility.

Screen grab CBS News

A Long Island nursing home's attempt to entertain its residents didn't go as planned, as the facility faces a lawsuit for staging a strip show for its patients, CBS news reports.

The risqué event featuring male dancers was discovered after the son of one of the residents apparently found a photo among his mother's things in January. The elderly woman, Bernice Youngblood, has dementia and, according to the multimillion-dollar lawsuit, was "photographed by nursing home staff as a muscular, almost nude male dancer gyrated in front of her."

"He had a fistful of dollars in his hand and she was putting a dollar in his pants at his demand; he's leaning over her, he's not just standing there, he's intimidating her," the Youngbloods' attorney, John Ray, told 1010 WINS, CBS notes. "This might be great for 32-year-old single girls, but this is an 86-year-old, traditional African-American woman who doesn't want white men sticking their private parts in her face."

When the woman's son, Franklin Youngblood, asked about the photo he had found, the head nurse of the East Neck Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in West Babylon allegedly tried to grab the picture away from him. It was only when his brother called the nursing home and spoke to another nurse that the family learned that the performance was an "entertainment event" that had been "planned, scheduled and executed by the facility, its agents, and employees and that it was done in 'good faith,'" CBS reports.

The home's lawyer is saying that the event was approved by the activities board and that Bernice Youngblood was not forced to attend. The home's attorney said that the woman's daughter-in-law took her into the room for the event and that she had fun there.

However, the Youngbloods' lawyer rejects that explanation, accusing the home of holding the event for "their own sick amusement." The lawsuit claims that the woman and her fellow patients did not have "the physical or mental capacity to consent to such vile acts or to defend themselves against such vile acts."